USING WOOD AS A FUEL
Because wood was used extensively as generator fuel during World War II, and since it is plentiful in most parts of the populated United States, it merits particular attention for use as an emergency source of energy. When used in gas generators, about 20 lb of wood have the energy equivalence of one gallon of gasoline.

Wood consists of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and a small amount of nitrogen. As a gas generator fuel, wood has several advantages. The ash content is quite low, only 0.5 to 2% (by weight), depending on the species and upon the presence of bark. Wood is free of sulphur, a contaminant that easily forms sulfuric acid which can cause corrosion damage to both the engine and the gas generator. Wood is easily ignited-a definite virtue for the operation of any gas generator unit.

The main disadvantages for wood as a fuel are its bulkiness and its moisture content.
AS it is a relatively light material, one cubic yard of wood produces only 500 to 600 lb of gas generator fuel. Moisture content is notoriously high in wood fuels, and it must be brought below 20% (by weight) before it can be used in a gas generator unit. By weight, the moisture in green wood runs from 25 to 60%, in air-dried wood from 12 to 15%, and in kiln-dried wood about 8%. Moisture content can be be quite easily by carefully weighing a specimen of the wood, placing it in an oven at 220°F for thirty minutes, reweighing the specimen, and reheating it until its weight decreases to a constant value. The original moisture content is equivalent to the weight lost.

The prototype unit in this manual (with an 6-in.-diam firetube) operated well on both wood chips (minimum size: 3/4 by 3/4 by 1/4 in.) and blocks (up to 2-in. cubes); see Fig. 3-1 (all figures and tables mentioned in Sect. 3 are presented at the end of Sect. 3). Larger sizes could be used, if the firetube diameter is increased to prevent bridging of the individual pieces of wood; of course, a throat restriction would then have to be added to the bottom of the firetube so as to satisfy the dimensions in Table 2-2 in Sect. 2.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND ENGINE MODIFICATIONS
To start the fire in the gasifier, the blower must be used to create a suction airflow through the wood in the hopper and downward in the firetube. If an especially high horsepower engine is to be fueled by the gasifier unit, then it might be necessary to install two such blowers and run them simultaneously during start-up.

When the wood gas leaves the gasifier unit, all the oxygen pulled down with the air through the firetube has been chemically converted and is contained in carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H20). The wood gas is unable to burn without being mixed with the proper amount of additional oxygen. If an air leak develops below the grate area, the hot gas will burn while consuming the available oxygen and will create heat; this will almost certainly destroy the gasifier unit if it is not detected soon. If an air leak develops in the filter unit or in the connecting piping, the gas will become saturated with improper amounts of oxygen and will become too dilute to power the engine. Therefore, airtightness from the gasifier unit to the engine is absolutely essential.

Ideally, as the wood gas enters the engine manifold it should bc mixed with air in a ratio of 1:1 or 1.1:1 (air to gas) by volume. The carburetion system described in this report will provide this mixture with a minimum of friction losses in the piping. The throttle control valve and the air control valve must be operable from the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

The engine’s spark plug gaps should be adjusted to between 0.012 and 0.015 in.; the ignition timing should be adjusted to “early.”